As part of its “Red Tape Challenge”, the UK Government identified a number of restrictions in the Gambling Act 2005 that currently prevent certain forms of exempt lottery from being used for fundraising. Following a public consultation earlier this year, the DCMS has now announced its intention to abolish or relax a number of these restrictions. In particular, it proposes to legislate so that:

– “incidental non-commercial lotteries”, “private society lotteries”, “work lotteries” and “residents’ lotteries” can all be used to raise funds for charities and good causes;
– incidental lotteries can be run at both non-commercial and commercial events;
– the requirement to announce the results of an incidental lottery while the main event is taking place will be dropped; and
– the current requirements for the promoter’s name and address details to be printed on the tickets for work and residents’ lotteries will be abolished.

However, work and resident’s lottery tickets must still be non-transferrable. Further, the rule requiring “work lotteries” to be run on a single geographical site only, rather than across multiple locations, is not going to be relaxed.

Why this matters:

The changes will – once implemented in law – have a significant impact for charities, freeing them up to run and be involved in a much wider range of fundraising raffles, draws and other activities.

For brands and advertisers, the changes offer some new avenues for cause-related marketing:

• Brands running or sponsoring events will be able to offer raffles and prize draws at those events in support of good causes (subject to a £500 maximum prize limit and a £100 limit on expenses).
• Businesses will be much more free to run internal staff raffles and sweepstakes in support of partner charities – although multi-site businesses will need to be careful to run separate schemes for each of their sites.

The Government Response to the Consultation on Incidental Non Commercial, Private Society, Work and Residents’ Lotteries can be found here.

In a separate development, the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee has announced a short inquiry into Society Lotteries, and their place within a system which includes the Health Lottery and the National Lottery – including whether there is a case for relaxing some current regulatory requirements. The submissions deadline is 6 October 2014. See here for further details.